A supporter of cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri lights a candle in Karachi, Pakistan, to remember violence victims.

Photo: Asif Hassan, AFP/Getty Images

A supporter of cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri lights a candle in Karachi,...

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Pakistani supporters of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) political party leader, Canadian-based cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, gather near his house following clashes with police in Lahore on August 9, 2014. Hundreds of people, including police officers, were injured in renewed clashes August 9, 2014, between followers of a populist, moderate cleric and the police after authorities blocked roads leading to his headquarters in Lahore. Violence broke out earlier on August 8 after hundreds of baton wielding supporters of Tahir-ul-Qadri tried to remove shipping containers used to block the roads to his base in the upscale Model Town area. Qadri, a religious moderate who was until recently based in Canada, had previously threatened to march on the Pakistani capital and overthrow the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. AFP PHOTO/Arif ALIArif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Photo: Arif Ali, AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani supporters of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) political...

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Pakistani policemen stand guard atop containers blocking the road that leads to the house of cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014. Fighting between Pakistani security forces and supporters of a fiery anti-government cleric, Tahir-ul-Qadri, killed seven people as they were heading towards a planned demonstration in the city Lahore, the cleric claimed Saturday. Authorities have contested the cleric's claim and put the death toll from clashes to two, including one police officer. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Fighting between Pakistani security forces and supporters of a fiery antigovernment cleric killed seven people as they were heading toward a planned demonstration in the city of Lahore, the cleric said Saturday. Authorities have contested the cleric's claim and put the death toll from the clashes at two, including one police officer.

Cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who led anticorruption protests in January 2013 that paralyzed Pakistan's capital, has a network of mosques and religious centers across the country. His supporters briefly abducted six police officers in the fighting, which began Friday in Punjab province and continued into the next morning.

Supporters of the cleric planned to hold a demonstration in Lahore on Sunday to protest the killing of 14 people in June during similar clashes, and they were streaming toward the city from different directions when they encountered police roadblocks.

Qadri told reporters Saturday in Lahore that the clashes began when police opened fire on those coming for the protests and that seven of his supporters were killed and over 1,000 wounded.

The government has disputed his claim, saying that only one of Qadri's supporters and a police officer were killed in the clashes.

Rana Mashood, the provincial minister of Punjab, said the fighting began when Qadri's people tried to remove shipping containers being used as roadblocks, prompting police to fire tear gas.

Some 55 officers were wounded in the fighting, with one killed in clashes in Gujranwala district and one of Qadri's supporters killed in Multan district, Mashood said, adding that 500 people were arrested.

Some eight police and private vehicles were set on fire in Sargodha when police tried to stop the crowds from crossing the barricades, he said.

Qadri asked his supporters to give up their efforts to reach Lahore and instead directed them to hold protest rallies in their own areas.